Certain chemical reactions and phase transitions involve either absorption or loss of heat. Often the absorption or loss of heat is difficult to detect because of the relatively small change in temperature that results from the phase transition or chemical reaction. Conventional instruments are often incapable of measuring small changes in temperature due to a chemical change, such as a chemical reaction, a binding reaction, or protein denaturation.
Isothermal calorimetry (ITC) has been used to measure the heat that is evolved or absorbed during a mixing-induced chemical reaction. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is used to measure the heat that is evolved or absorbed due to a thermally induced phase transition. Conventional studies using ITC and DSC often use large, expensive benchtop devices that require large sample volumes. Conventional instrumentation used for ITC and DSC typically lacks the sensitivity to detect changes in temperature due to the occurrence of chemical reactions or phase transitions in small sample volumes. The production of large volumes of reagents is inconvenient and expensive and is fundamentally incompatible with the combinatorial discovery methods that are increasingly used in microbiology and drug discovery.
A relatively simple and inexpensive device capable of accurately measuring temperature changes due to chemical reactions and phase transitions in smaller volumes would therefore be beneficial.